European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 5, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                New York times 2 radar plot shows Mountain Range beneath mile of ice. Arrow Points to vast Lake. Radar probing by Walter Sullivan new York times or some 20 million years a Region of the world comparable in size to Europe has remained hidden under Antarctic ice. Now systematic surveying with airborne radar is bringing to Light its entombed mountains ice buried lakes some More than 100 Miles Long and deep troughs testifying to past upheavals in the Earth s history. Radar probing has shown that the Antarctic ice in places is More than 15,000 feet thick but Here and there beneath it Are tablelands and great sedimentary basins similar to those of Australia and Africa. The three continents were a single land mass 60 million years ago. Although the covering ice Sheet is relatively smooth the landscape that has been revealed be Neath it is in some regions extremely rugged. Along the 135th Meridian close to the Western bound Ary of France s territorial claim a North South Escarp ment has been discover that is More than 8,200 feet High in some places and 160 Miles Long. East of it lies a trough with an ice Laden floor several thousand feet below sea level. David j. Drewry of the Scott Polar research Institute in Cambridge England in charge of the surveys likens this great elongated Gash in the Earth s crust to that of Lake Baikal in Siberia the world s most voluminous body of fresh water. The surveys conducted with equipment carried by american aircraft Are a cooperative Effort be tween the Institute at Cambridge associated with the University of Cambridge and the american re search program financed by the National science foundation. In East Antarctica the vast Continental Block South of Australia and Africa More than a million Square Miles of ice buried terrain have already been mapped on a series of flight lines 30 to 60 Miles apart. These have charted a series of mountains completely buried beneath the ice in the Vicinity of the soviet Inland base Vostok. They Are known As the Gam Burtsel mountains. The great Valley East of the escarpment along the 135th parallel has been tentatively named the Aurora Basin for the ship Aurora of the australian explorer sir Douglas Mawson. A similar feature lying behind the coastal sector of the trans Antarctic mountains has been called the Wilkes Basin As it forms part of Wilkes land. Radar seismic and magnetic measurements Indi Cate that these basins Are filled with sediment in some places several Miles deep that was Laid Down by erosion when this Region welded to Australia and Africa was free of ice and exposed to weathering in a less frigid latitude. The radar probing also indicates that the great depos its of sediment under the floor of the Ross sea the southernmost Extension of the world s oceans extend at least 60 Miles Inland under the grounded ice of Marie Byrd land in West Antarctica. Drilling into the sediment under the Ross sea has suggested the presence there of Oil deposits another relic of the period before this Region drifted near the South pole. A primary goal of ice Sheet probing in West Antarctica is to Aid in assessing the possibility of a surge a rapid slippage of a Large Section of ice into the sea that would raise global sea Levels. West Antarctica is the Region South of the americas and its cover of ice is regarded by some glaciology its As unstable. A Drill Hole through the ice in Marie Byrd land has shown that part of the ice there rests on a lubricating layer of slush. According to Drewry however this is not True where the ice flows Over buried peaks and domes which May prevent the rapid slippage of a  mapping the magnetic properties of the Rock beneath the ice in West Antarctica May help define the line of de Markatoon Between the two plates of the Earth s crust. It is suspected that the plates joined and in doing so Possi Bly rotated to form the present continent. Originally they were pieces in the supercontinent that broke up to form the land masses of the Southern hemis phere. One puzzling result of the radar probing is the Evi Dence of layering within the ice. Some of it May be caused by volcanic Ash deposits Laid Down Over the millions of years that have elapsed while the Antarctic ice was accumulating and flowing to the sea. But drilling into the ice so far has not revealed enough volcanic layers to account for the observations and it is suspected that they reflect periods when special climatic conditions were depositing other contaminants such As Salt or producing layers of unusual density. The layers tend to follow contours of the buried mountains but in the deepest Region of ice the layers have been wiped out. Drewry said that he suspected this was because the ice there had been churned up As it flowed Over the Rock be Neath it. Plotting is done at Cambridge England. Tuesday september 5, 1978 the stars and stripes Page 13